It was a lovely Autumn day on Saturday. The sun was shining, showing off the lovely golden colours of the leaves on the trees. I knew exactly where I wanted to go – Chipping Norton. I used to live near there & hadn’t been back in some time. There were a few new shops that I’ve been desperate to go to. Another reason I wanted to go was because Mark-Making were holding an Instagram exhibition. I love Instagram & was keen to see some of their photos in print. The exhibition was great and it was so cool to see how impressive Instagram pictures can look printed. I’ve definitely been inspired to print some of mine! As we had 2 hours free parking (hear that Oxford City Council?!), we headed to the shops. First stop was Fibreworks. I’d read about this lovely little wool shop on Twitter and on some blogs. It was lovely & I was in the market for some new 10mm needles, which they had. In fact they had a few to choose from.
I settled on these lovelies to knit this chunky blue wool that I bought a few weeks ago. I could’ve spent ages looking at the different patterns and wools they had. It’s such a great shop and they do lots of classes & workshops. A real gem of a shop. On our way to the bookshop, we stopped by the Cotswold Deli & Cheese shop and picked up some delicious macarons, my favourite treat. Finally we headed to Jaffé and Neal for some cake, coffee and book shopping. They hav lots of lovely bits and pieces as well as the latest books. My OH bought two new books and we sat in the sunny window, enjoying coffee and cake. I had a brownie, while my OH had the victorian sponge. Recently, all the brownies I’ve had have been really over the top, including one which had huge chunks of chocolate. Far too sickly. I’m very pleased to report that this one was perfect. Not too gooey or too chocolately. Just right!
Between Daylesford Farm in the morning & supporting independent shops in Chipping Norton, I had a lovely Saturday. It’s good to see so many Oxfordshire market towns thriving. Keep it up Chippy!
***********
Another excellent shop in Chipping Norton is the Arctic Fish Bar on the hill out of town. We didn’t shop there on Saturday, but they are hands down the best chips I’ve ever eaten (and I’ve eaten plenty!). Well worth a visit if you’re ever near.
Enjoy! x